Osama bin Laden

It was business as usual for the United States on the morning of that Tuesday dated 11 September 2001. People were starting their mid-week day with the usual morning rush, little knowing just how much their world would change within hours.

And so it happened that when terrorists struck in harrowing widespread attacks, people were caught unawares, attacked in time of peace and taken completely by surprise. The rest is history.

In the first attack, a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan shortly before 9 am, followed by another plane hitting the second tower about 20 minutes later. Both towers eventually collapsed.

An hour later a plane crashed into the Pentagon, part of which also eventually collapsed.

American Airlines lost 2 planes en route to Los Angeles. United Airlines lost 2 planes, one headed to Los Angeles, the other to San Francisco. All 4 planes had been hijacked.

To date total numbers of lost lives are: 2,643 confirmed dead, 222 reported dead, 147 missing, for a grand total of 3,012 victims.

One of the key suspects behind all the carnage was Osama bin Laden, one of CIA’s most wanted men and a hero to many young people in the Arab world. Facts have seemingly moved towards proving his culpability especially since the US State Department calls him "one of the most significant sponsors of Islamic extremist activities in the world today."

But who is Osama bin Laden?

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born in Riyadh in 1957. He is the 17th of 52 (some sources even cite 54) children raised by Muhammad Bin Laden, Saudi’s wealthiest construction magnate. This vast progeny is the fruit of a number of marriages. These sons and daughters have different mothers and different nationalities as well. Each has his own set of affinities, thus contributing to the eventual expansion of the bin Laden business group’s international scope. Brothers clan together to represent the Syrian group, the Lebanese group, the Jordanian group and the Egyptian group. Osama bin Laden is, incidentally, the only brother with a Saudi mother. This basic knowledge is enough to make internal family conflict understandable.

Today the Bin Laden family has one of the biggest construction groups in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. French intelligence sources claim that Sheik Mohammed bin Laden was a native of the Chafeite (Sunni) Hadramout who emigrated from South Yemen to Saudi Arabia at the beginning of the century.

It is said that having satisfied King Abdul Aziz with the construction work on the royal palace, bin Laden was awarded the prestigious contract of the renovation of Mecca. The Saudi royal family gave the bin Laden family and group exclusive rights to all construction of a religious nature, whether in Mecca, Medina or up until 1967 in Holy Places at Jerusalem. This enabled the bin Ladens to establish an industrial and financial empire supported by the strong relationship fostered between them and the Saudi royal family. Sheik Mohammed bin Laden became the King’s friend and confidante and his sons went to the same schools as those frequented by the King’s sons.

This explains why Osama bin Laden could graduate from King Abdul Aziz University in Jiddah with a degree in civil engineering in 1979. By the end of that year, upon the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he left Saudi Arabia to join the Afghan resistance known as the mujahdeen. Osama became known for his fundamentalist views especially after the period ranging from 1980 – 1986 during which he raised funds and provided the mujahedeen with logistical and humanitarian aid from the Pakistani border where he was living.
Eventually in 1988 he established ‘al Qaeda’, an organisation of ex-mujahedeen and other supporters. Its mission was to channel fighters and funds to the Afghan resistance.

After the Soviets’ retreat from Afghanistan in 1989, Osama returned to Saudi Arabia as a hero. However he became increasingly involved in opposition movements to the Saudi monarchy whilst working in construction for the Bin Laden Group.

In 1992, a bomb explosion in a hotel in Yemen where US troops were staying, was immediately linked to bin Laden and his associates. The following year the World Trade Centre was bombed. An escalation of events led the Saudi government to revoke his citizenship and freeze his assets in Saudi Arabia because of his support for Muslim fundamentalist movements.

In 1995 US intelligence sources reported that bin Laden had established extensive training and housing operations for foreign guerillas in northern Yemen near the Saudi border. During the same year he wrote an open letter to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia calling for a campaign of guerrilla attacks in order to drive US forces out of the kingdom.

In 1996 Sudan expelled bin Laden because of international pressure by the US and Saudi Arabia. He promptly moved back to Afghanistan. That was the year when President Clinton signed a top secret order that authorised CIA to use any and all means to destroy bin Laden’s network.

With his signing of the Declaration of Jihad in 1996, bin Laden swore to drive US forces from the Arabian Peninsula, overthrow the Government of Saudi Arabia, liberate Muslim holy sites, and support Islamic revolutionary groups around the world. In an interview given to Gwynne Roberts of the British documentary programme ‘Dispatches’, bin Laden threatened to wage an Islamic holy war against the US and its allies unless Washington removed its troops from the Gulf region.

With an alleged 3,000 fighters backing him, a huge inheritance being ploughed into armed activities plus the safe haven granted by Afghanistan’s Taliban movement, it was becoming increasingly obvious that he would soon become a serious threat to American nationals. As proved by a joint declaration he made with the Islamic Group, Al Jihad, the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh and the ‘Jamaat ul Ulema e Pakistan’ under the banner of the ‘World Islamic Front’. In 1998 this stated that Muslims should kill Americans including civilians anywhere in the world.

According to the US, he was involved in at least 3 major attacks – the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, the 1996 killing of 19 soldiers in Saudi Arabia and the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The September 11 events have added up to the man’s portfolio of terrorist activities.

Whether he is the mastermind and direct financier of terror operations or simply an inspirational figure is still hard to know for sure even though many think the video recently released by the US is proof enough of his direct participation September 11 events. Though on Friday, a video dated 11 December shows Bin Laden explicitly taking responsibility for the attacks. He also publicly blessed the so called martyrs. What remains certain is that Osama bin Laden’s name will be linked to the terror which hit the Western world at the start of the new century.

The terror attacks on the US were not simply isolated happenings in the history of this country. They heralded a universal ebb and flow of events directly linked to themselves. The first direct effect was fear. Fear which gripped not only Americans living in the States, but also American nationals abroad. Fear gripped countries of the West who are members of NATO, who have strong allegiances to this country and who have interests in its financial stability.

Wall Street felt the pinch with stocks and shares plunging precariously, causing the financial world to hold its breath, hoping that no other untoward event would occur, that time would be on the side of healthy financial charts.
Airlines around the world suffered tremendously. Again fear played the leading role with thousands of bookings being cancelled and whole companies packing up due to bankruptcy. Security measures tightened world-over, with the newest technology being adopted alongside healthy manpower to guard airports, planes and passengers.

It has been a time of strengthening of bonds between friendly countries, a time of taking sides and keeping safe, holding terrorism at bay.

In Afghanistan, history changed forever when Bush declared war on a country already forsaken and ravaged by years of harsh Taliban rule. Today Afghanistan is trying to stand on its own feet again, supported by foreign alliances, glad to be rid of the Taliban. Women are back on the streets as free women, business is picking up again and Afghans who had fled the country during the Taliban occupation are once again approaching their native land with the hope of a revival of the country’s past prosperity.